Tag: fear

Where Your Treasure Is

I would have to say that those who express doubts about the legitimacy of the “virus war” we now face are becoming fewer in number. Serious people know when something is serious. Serious people take appropriate action to mitigate the seriousness of a situation. Yet even the mature, serious people know when something is not entirely in their hands, and that they cannot control everything. Some may descend into fear over what awaits. Psalm 55 speaks of fear in words… Read more »

Fear, Foolishness, & Cults of Personality

Reading in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago this morning, I came across this fascinating account. The author tells of a Communist Party conference during the time of the Great Purge of Party leaders (and hundreds of thousands of others as well) in 1937-1938. The presiding officer was a new man who had taken over for the previous secretary of the District Party who had recently been arrested. Solzhenitsyn relates, “At the conclusion of the conference, a tribute to Comrade Stalin was… Read more »

Lewis: “We Have Been Waked from a Pretty Dream”

When the atomic age dawned in 1945, the utter devastation of such a bomb awed the world, and many were driven to a fear that the entire world might be destroyed. C. S. Lewis lived through that initial shock but didn’t allow the fear to grip him. In an essay written in 1948, “On Living in an Atomic Age,” he brought his common-sense Christian mind to the topic. How should one live in an atomic age, he asks? “I am… Read more »

Man’s Praise or God’s?

You know how you can be reading through the Scriptures and a passage jumps out at you? That happened for me this morning as I was meditating on chapter 13 of the Gospel of John. Here’s what stood out: Many even among the leaders believed in Him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue. For they loved human praise more than the praise from God…. Read more »

The Confessing–and Faithful–Church

Every day I receive an e-mail from the Christian History Institute with a feature story about some aspect of church history, highlighting the faithfulness of Christians in ages past. Today’s was especially poignant to me as it revealed the stark difference between those who link their Christianity too closely to the State and those who stand for righteousness when the State does not. This account centers on Nazi Germany, but the principles remain the same for any nation: After Hitler… Read more »

A New Year of Observations & Analysis

I’m settled into my comfy recliner in my study, surrounded by books and enjoying a unique kind of coffee (I won’t go into that). So I’m relaxed and ready to begin another year of observations about God, man, society, and life in general. Most people probably have this particular view of the new year: Am I concerned about all those things? Absolutely. Am I living in daily fear of nuclear holocaust, the undermining of the Republic, or the societal trends?… Read more »

God’s Peace in a Nuclear Age: Wisdom from Lewis

I grew up with the nuclear threat; it’s always been there. C. S. Lewis didn’t. He was 46 when those bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending WWII. So one might expect a different reaction from someone in his generation. As he surveyed the response to this new weapon, he saw that many were nearly beside themselves with fear; yet he continued to offer clear thinking on this subject (as he did on all subjects). Three years after Hiroshima… Read more »